NASCAR insiders question if Kurt Busch will make Hall of Fame Class of 2026

Next week, the NASCAR Hall of Fame Class of 2026 will be voted on. Kurt Busch is on the ballot this year for the first time. Will Busch, the 2004 Cup Series champion, 34-time race winner, Daytona 500 and Coke 600 champion, be voted in? On the face of it, he should be a first-ballot selection.

On top of his race wins and accolades, Kurt Busch has done things no other driver has done. He won Cup races with four different manufacturers, the only driver to do so. Before Kyle Larson, he was the last driver to attempt Double Duty in the Indy 500 and Coca-Cola 600.

Kurt also happens to be one-half of the most successful brother duo ever in the sport. His record screams first-ballot Hall of Famer.

Jeff Gluck and Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic talked about the vote. Both journalists will be in the room and will cast ballots for the NASCAR Hall of Fame Class of 2026.

“Yeah, I mean, I’ll tell you, I’m pretty rock solid, I’m going to vote for Kurt Busch for one of them,” Gluck explained on The Teardown. “The other ones I’ll listen to, but I’m not going to not vote for a guy who has over 30 wins and a championship.”

Bianchi was in agreement. His ballot will include Kurt Busch.

“100%, I agree. Won the Daytona 500, won the Coke 600, like you said, 30 wins, Cup champion,” Bianchi added. “I don’t think people realize he has made every team he’s with better, organizationally. Denny Hamlin had said this about Kurt this week of like, he came to 23XI, Kurt did, and he put structures in place of like, ‘This is how we need to do things if you guys want to achieve the level you want to be at,’ that they still use today, and I think he deserves credit for that.”

While Gluck and Bianchi are in agreement, that doesn’t mean much. The rest of the Hall of Fame voters could have issues with Kurt Busch. Personal issues.

“I’ll keep an open mind to what people are talking about in the room,” Gluck said. “I don’t know how Kurt – I don’t know how the room will view Kurt. He may have been the biggest jerk at times that I ever covered of any driver. Earlier in his career, obviously. He mellowed by the end. But at times it was like, this guy is – so he made a lot of enemies, certainly.

“I’m going to publicize my ballot. Will some people that don’t publicize their ballot just be like, ‘I’m not voting for this guy, no way.’ We’ve never seen a unanimous [selection]; Jimmie Johnson wasn’t unanimous. So, you know, there’s some people that have their own reasons for doing things. I would think that he would get in. But I’m certainly voting for him. And I don’t care how he was, his career speaks for itself.”

For whatever reason, the NASCAR Hall of Fame voters refuse to give a unanimous selection. If Jimmie Johnson couldn’t even get it, then what is the point? With that in mind, I think there is a real chance that Kurt Busch gets left out of the Class of 2026.

Busch helped define a generation of NASCAR racing. Let’s not forget, he picked up that Next Gen win in 2022 before his injury. His career of winning and success speaks for itself. Do the right thing voters, put Busch into the Hall of Fame.